Danczyk to graduate from West Point

Cadet Anne Danczyk, Whitefish High

School class of 2007, will join the “Long Grey Line” on May 21,

when she graduates from the United States Military Academy at West

Point in New York.

West Point is the longest continuously

occupied military post in the nation. Danczyk will be commissioned

as a 2nd Lieutenant in artillery and assigned to Ft. Lewis, Wash.

following basic artillery officer training. Her unit, the 17th

Fires Brigade, is currently scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in

the spring of 2012.

Danczyk’s family moved to the Flathead

in the summer of 2003 when her father, also a West Point graduate

in 1979, retired from active duty. They settled in Whitefish where

all four children attended school. Many of Danczyk’s skills and

passions at West Point were cultivated during her years in the

Flathead. She ran cross country under Bill and Sara Brist and track

under Derek Schulz where they passed on the love of endorphins.

She co-captained the 2006 team that was

third at state and still blogs with many of Bill’s “running

army.”

While her mom, Annell, provided the

foundation for her love of music, she truly blossomed under Bob and

Ruth Clawson and Whitefish High School’s wonderful choir and

equally enjoyed time spent acting with Betsi Morrison and the

Alpine Theater Project.

Similarly, while she learned to ski in

Germany, she learned to race on the Big Mountain Alpine Race Team

under Jeff Pickering, Pete Collins, Alrick Hale and others who

passed on the skills and love of both the “Big” and skiing.

She also loved the four seasons of the

Flathead. Family trips to hike Glacier, kayaking the lakes and

rivers, hunting, fishing, camping, skiing all joys that also served

her very well, especially in the field aspects of her becoming a

soldier. Her recognition as the outstanding female cadet during her

“yearling summer” field training summer had something to do with

those bivouacs paling in comparison to long, wet family weekends

spent bush whacking in the Whitefish range and in front of

campfires on mountainsides from Alaska to Italy.

Reflective of the ever evolving role of

the U.S. military, Danczyk has had a wide variety of experiences

and travels since her arrival at USMA. She attended Chile’s winter

warfare school, and Ecuador’s jungle warfare center. She was part

of Spanish language and culture immersion teams to Costa Rica,

Panama, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, and also served with a

helicopter unit in Japan.

She earned a varsity A with the USMA

cross-country team, sang with the glee club and skied with the

alpine race team. She captained the ski team this past year and was

able to compete at the USCSA regionals in 2010 and 2011 and

Nationals in 2010.

This past year she has been a Cadet

Captain as the Corps of Cadets Brigade Assistant Adjutant. This

high visibility assignment required her coordination of many of the

visiting dignitaries that routinely tour the Academy. After an

exhaustive academic schedule, she will earn a bachelor of science

degree in international studies concentrating on Latin and South

America.

Danczyk joins a long line of classmates

and friends from the Flathead who are serving the nation in one of

the military or other governmental services literally around the

globe. She looks forward to a moment in the nomadic life of a

soldier when she crosses paths with a classmate, and relives that

epic powder day on the Big or cross country run in the snow in

Helena.

Her brothers, Jake, an honors program

Physics and Mechanical Engineering major at MSU, and Matt, a

Mechanical Engineering student also in the MSU honors program, and

sister, Megan, a sophomore at Whitefish High School, are proud and

just a bit in denial that their silly sister could be leading

soldiers in combat shortly.

Whatever title she might have gained

means very little when she is home on leave and it comes time to

divide up the after-dinner chores. She can barely believe it

herself.

None the less, America continues to

lead, and our citizens, communities, and nation continue to prepare

new generations of warriors and leaders to rise up and meet the

demands and sacrifices of this complex new world. Certainly,

Danczyk, and many thousands like her, are providing the energy and

skills to ensure we will remain a world leader for many generations

to come.